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Micro album reviews 01 ---------------------- (album reviews which are short, not reviews of short albums!) Yes, yes, since my separate "Three Albums per Month" gemlog got merged into my single gemlog I've dropped the ball somewhat, and I still need to write reviews of three albums I bought back in July[1]. Nevertheless, here's some relatively short and simple reviews of three *other* albums. This might become a recurring format, we'll see. These are all electronic Japanese albums from last century. I downloaded all of them from YouTube via youtube-dl - the first time in my life I've done so, and funnily enough I did it only a week or so before the recent RIAA/GitHub/youtube-dl kerfuffle. These are old and relatively obscure albums, and I know of no way to legally purchase DRM-free digital copies without doing business with an evil MegaCorp - if I did, I'd have done so. I don't feel bad doing this for albums which are more than 25 years old, as I don't believe it removes any substantial incentive from the artist to continue doing art. Frankly, I find it kind of weird that a video platform like YouTube has become such a widely used vehicle for music delivery. I guess/hope the underlying technology is smart enough that when the accompanying video is just a static album cover there is almost no overhead, but still. Anyway, onwards... Osamu Kitajima's "Benzaiten" (1974) [2] This is maybe the least "purely electronic" album on here, because in addition to having electric guitar and bass alongside synthesisers, the whole thing is a fusion of electronic and traditional Japanese music. I actually don't know if some of the traditional sounds are actually made with authentic wooden instruments or whether they are good modular synth imitations. This is also probably my favourite of the three. It took a day or two to grow on me, but it certainly did. I now regularly get some of the singing/chanting sections stuck in my head (especially from the second track "Taiyo"). I like listening to this at the start of the day. Fun fact: the bass playing on this album is by Haruomi Hosono, of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame. Tetsu Inoue's "Ambiant Otaku" (1994) [3] Yes, "ambiant" rather than "ambient", it's the French spelling, apparently. This is a quite minimalistic ambient piece, which is quite unusual, at least by the standards of my limited knowledge of the genre. There's not much in the way of rhythm or melody to the whole thing, just a constantly and subtly shifting soundscape. At times it feels almost organic. But this certainly isn't "New Age" music, there's no waterfalls or bird or whale song in there. The sound is unashamedly digital and high-tech. I'm pretty sure there is some FM synthesis in there. Some people online seem to have really profound reactions to this music, and other stuff by Inoue. To me, though, this is just nice, inoffensive, relaxing background music to have on while reading or something. Nothing amazing, I guess this is just not really my thing. It's fairly quiet music, so best listened to at home in a quiet room - it couldn't be appreciated in a noisy environment, so not one for travelling, unless you have good noise cancelling headphones, I guess. Susumu Yokota's "Acid Mt Fuji" (1994) [4] Another fairly minimal and ambient album, but this one has much more emphasis on rhythm, with the fairly standard repetitive beats of techno music. You might find yourself nodding your head in time with this, which is fairly well impossible with "Ambient Otaku". Funnily enough, this album actually *does* feature recordings of animal sounds, but the strong echo effects and overall "dark" feel of the sound again keeps this very well out of New Age territory. Again, I'm not really sure this is my thing. It seems like the only really beat-driven electronic music that I have much tolerance for is downtempo / chill out stuff. Despite having a similarly low BPM, this album just doesn't have the same characteristic sound. [1] gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/users/solderpunk/gemlog/purchases-2020-07.gmi [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZgUHBEP-rM [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hld-bcNg7nI [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSY1tyuR3WQ